


Dive!

by Ohmygodnighttroll



Category: Harry Potter - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Muggle AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-10-31 07:36:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17845163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ohmygodnighttroll/pseuds/Ohmygodnighttroll
Summary: James Potter meets Lily Evans, the new lifeguard at his parents’ country club, and decides he has to get her attention. By any means necessary.





	Dive!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GhostofBambi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GhostofBambi/gifts).



There were few things that could get James Potter out of bed before noon. Sleep, in his mind was well beyond precious and approaching on holy. Not that James’ mother gave two shits about his love of sleep as she forced him and his mates to “rise and shine” on the first day of summer, a day where James didn’t feel like either rising or shining. It was no secret that Euphemia Potter wanted James and his mates out of the house so she could enjoy the peace and quiet she had become accustomed to during the school year and was using the notion of “getting outside to enjoy the sunshine” as a cover. James’ particular thoughts on the matter however, were not ones that could be vocalised in front of his mother, lest she attack his tongue with a bar of Irish Spring. It was better for him just to do as she said and grumble about it later.

No, out of the many things you could say about James Potter, “morning person” was not one of them. That is, until the beautiful red headed lifeguard quite literally dove into his life.

It was not unusual for James and his mates to spend most of their summer days at the pool of Hart and Hind—a country club owned and operated by James’ parents, but the arrival of this red haired vixen could be enough to make their appearances at the pool a daily occurrence.

Her name, as he found out, was Lily Evans. Maybe it was her red hair that first captured his attention. Hair that was not auburn or ginger, but the colour of autumn leaves. Perhaps it was her long legs, which seemed to acquire more freckles by the second. Or maybe it was her bright bottle green eyes, which James only managed to see when she came off the lifeguard chair and into the water for her afternoon swim lesson.

James was sure that Cupid’s arrow had shot him straight through the heart. Not just because her eyes were not hidden by her sunglasses— though those emerald beauties had him transfixed, but because  
she actually appeared to be enjoying herself for the first time all day.

“Miss Wily, Miss Wily! Look at me!”

James watched as the 3 year old jumped again and again into her waiting arms. Lily’s smile lit up her face, no matter how many times the young boy splashed her. Every time he made some sort of achievement, she would cheer and praise him with a “Well done, Charlie!” Even when he got scared and clung to her neck she stayed calm and composed, and comforted Charlie until he was ready to try again.

James was taken in immediately by how kind she was. She never got angry or lost her temper and she was willing to play and splash with the kids, just so they could continue to have fun, even if it meant there was no actual learning going on in the lesson. No matter how much shit she had to deal with from the rest of the members all day— and James has seen just how much, she stayed smiling throughout the whole lesson.

James was completely infatuated with her. But he was not the only one at Hart and Hind who felt this way. As the day crept slowly on, many a young man would try in vain to earn her favour, though Lily’s response to them was never quite what they were expecting.

On that particularly humid summer morning, a brave young man stepped forward as the proverbial sacrificial lamb, and it all it took was one pick up line to start everything in motion.

“Hello Darling!” the young man called to her, “you know, if I could rearrange the alphabet I would put u and i together.”

“Now why would you want to do that,” Lily replied, “when my answer is already in the alphabet arranged as is?”

The man gave her a confused look. “Come again?”

“N and o.” she said not even looking up from her continuous scan of the water. “They are already next to each other in the alphabet and I think you’re smart enough to figure out what they spell.”

“Oh come on Darling, don’t be like that.” he pleaded at her.

Lily ignored him and returned to her routine.

Yet another brave soul tried to grab her attention.

“So love, did it hurt when you fell from Heaven?”

Though Lily’s eyes were once again covered up by her sunglasses, James just knew she was rolling them. Really, how old was that pick up line? Pathetic.

“No,” she said, “But I did chip a nail while I was crawling out of hell.” She extended her hand and made a shoo-ing gesture with her fingers. “Now please leave me alone, so I can focus on my job.”

James watched as braver men than he tried to win her over, and couldn’t help but feel a rush of joy every time she shot them down. The more she refused them, the harder they tried. The harder they tried, the faster she shot them down. There was even one lad whom Lily just told “no” before he could even get a word in. And as James watched their fruitless attempts, the more determined he became to be the one to finally earn her favour. But how to do it?

Surely just a mere pickup line wouldn’t do the job, not after these train wrecks he’d seen. He could try flowers, but that would be creepy he thought. What to do, what to do?

As the day came to a close, James was certain that he had come up with the perfect plan to finally get her to notice him.

“Gentlemen,” he announced to his friends,“I’m going to try ‘The Squintz’.”

James had probably made his friends watch _The Sandlot_  dozens of times.“The Squintz,” as James called it, required that he pretend to drown in order for the lifeguard to rescue him and perform mouth to mouth resuscitation.

“Excellent,” replied Sirius, rubbing his hands together and sporting an ear-to-ear grin.

“I see this ending badly,” added Peter.

“You do know that at the end of that scene, Squintz and the rest of the Sandlot kids got banned from the pool, right?” asked Remus.

“Yeah, like that.” Peter agreed, pointing at Remus for affirmation.

James smiled at his friends, his poor, small-minded friends. “Ahhh, but how can we get banned from the pool, when my parents own the pool?”

His friends fell silent. They knew that gleam in James’ eye. The one that only appeared when he was 100% confident about something no matter the outcome.

“And furthermore, My Remus, if you’ll recall at the end of the movie, Squintz and the Lifeguard end up married. I’m thinking about the long game here.”

“It’s true that they can’t throw you out,” Said Remus, ever the voice of reason and logic. “But they could—and probably will—call your mother.”

James considered this for a moment, and visualized the tongue lashing his mother would give him for causing trouble for her employees.

“My mother is a firm believer in true love, Remus. She will understand.”

“Definitely,” added Sirius

“Maybe,” amended Peter.

“Do what you please, James. I wash my hands of this.” Remus lifted his hands palms out for emphasis and then strode away.

James watched his retreating figure then turned to his remaining friends.

“C’mon boys,” he said with his most reassuring smile. “What could possibly go wrong?”

James should know better than to jinx himself in such a manner.

He steeled himself at the edge of the deep end. Taking a large breath, he jumped in feet first and let his body sink all the way to the bottom. The water was colder than expected and caused James’ body to tense. He tried to push himself to the surface to no avail. It seemed the more he struggled the more he stayed still. His lungs screamed for oxygen, but there was no getting to the surface now. The last thing he heard was the shrill blast of the lifeguard’s whistle before the world faded to black.

_3-1000, 4-1000, 5-1000..._

Lily Evans counted in her head as she divided the pool into tiny slices, her head bobbing up and down, left to right, over and over again. When she accepted a lifeguard position at the Hart and Hind Country Club, she hadn’t expected how tedious the job would be. She knew it wouldn’t be all sunglasses and getting a tan like in the movies, nor did she have any delusions of making rescues every day—not that that would be a selling point, but the long hours in high temperatures plus overly-entitled guests wasn’t exactly what she signed on for either.

She glanced at her watch. Only two more hours left. For the first day of summer, the guests of the Hart and Hind seemed hellbent on throwing everything she hated about being a lifeguard at her.

Earlier that morning she had had to calm the temper tantrums of two older members who were “concerned” (read: butthurt) that the water aerobics classes took up nearly two-thirds of the pool, leaving only the remaining five lanes open for lap swimmers.

“There are thirty of them and only--” she did a quick scan of the pool, “seven of you. I have to give more space to the higher numbers.” In her mind however, she advised that it would be prudent for the guests to learn how to fucking share.

Nearly an hour later, she had to explain to a parent that tying a pool noodle around their infant did not qualify as an adequate flotation device, which caused a new wave of tantrums and not from the child. When there was a mid-morning summer storm, she had to explain that no, guests could not continue to swim while it was storming. No, there were no rainy day refunds, and no, there wasn’t a waiver one could sign to assume responsibility for their own safety. If they didn’t want to be electrocuted, they had to leave the pool.

This wasn’t even the worst of it. If another guy came up to her trying to ask her out, she was going to swan dive off the lifeguard stand and let herself drown. Now her shift was almost over and her relief was nowhere to be seen. The growling in her stomach and the ever-growing puddle of sweat in the seat of her chair reminded her that she had been on the stand for most of the day.

On what was probably the millionth scan of the pool, Lily noticed a figure struggling near the bottom of the pool. The figure, she recognized as one of the younger members who had been here most of the day. Though he was not one of the men who had been making her shift miserable, she assumed he was probably faking and continued to scan the rest of her area. On her next scan, his body was still under the surface.

_Fuck_ she thought. _Here we go._ She blew her whistle--one long shrill blast-- and jumped into the water. The cold shocked Lily awake. Adrenaline coursed through her veins as she took off in long quick strokes heading straight towards the submerged guest.

“I need assistance!” she yelled, her fist thrust into the air. “Bring the backboard!” She saw Marlene, the other lifeguard on duty, spring into action. Benjy, the deck supervisor leapt up to call 911 as Lily submerged herself into the depths below. It took three strong upward thrusts to get her body to sink to where the boy was now unmoving. She wrapped one arm around his middle and used her feet to push off hard from the pool floor, sending her and the young man rocketing towards the surface.

Breaching the surface of the water, she immediately flung him onto her rescue tube. She was stunned at how young he looked. He couldn’t be any older than she was—Seventeen, maybe eighteen years old. She pushed the hair back from his face and checked for a pulse. She sighed audibly when she felt a steady thrumming against her fingers. As quickly as she could, she got the boy onto the backboard Marlene had waiting for her and together they pulled him out of the water.

“James!” a group of boys she recognized as the victim’s friends rushed forward and began to crowd her. “What happened?!”

Lily threw up a hand and tried to shoo them away. “Lads, I know he’s your friend, but I need you to stand back and let us work.”

“Is he going to be all right?! Oh Christ, his mum’s going to kill us!”

The other pool guests had started to form a crowd around Lily and her guest. Low murmurs had broken out, and more than a few had phone cameras pointed in her direction.

“Marlene,” Lily barked, never taking her eyes off of her patient. “Take his friends to the snack bar, and see if you can get any information about him out of them. The rest of you—” she addressed the rest of the crowd with a wave of her hand—“please give me room to work and respect this young man’s privacy! If you are not calling 911, turn your cellphone off!”

Marlene laid a reassuring hand on Lily’s shoulder, “You sure you’ve got this, Lil?”

Lily nodded. “I’ve got this.”

_Alright Lily,_ she thought to herself, _you’ve done this before. It’s just like training: open the airway, check for breathing._

She tilted his head back. _No signs of spontaneous breathing. Fuck!_ She checked his pulse again and watched for the rising and falling of his chest.  _Pulse is strong, but no breathing. Fuck! FUCK! Okay Lily, you know what this means. You need to breathe for him._

She pulled out a mask and placed it over his nose and lips— _he has really nice lips, what an odd thing to notice when your saving his life._ —and began breathing for him.

She had barely been performing rescue breaths for 30 seconds when his eyelids fluttered open. Lily was stunned. Partly because everything she had been trained to do had actually paid off, and partly because he had the most beautiful eyes Lily had ever seen. But there was no time to think about that. She helped him roll over onto his side as he coughed up a slough of water from his lungs.

James’s lungs were on fire. He coughed a few more times, and then felt hands putting something over his nose. His vision was blurry—where were his glasses? He felt his face where the hands had just been: an oxygen mask covered his mouth and nose. He took several deep breaths, and the burning in his lungs subsided as the pure oxygen flowed into his nostrils.

“Wha—what happened?” his voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper.

“Sir, my name is Lily, I’m a lifeguard. You were unconscious for a bit and it seems you swallowed quite a bit of water. If you don’t mind, I would like to keep you here until the paramedics arrive to check you out. Do I have your consent to continue providing care until they arrive?”

“I—I actually drowned?”

“You swallowed water, and I would assume some of it got into your airway. You managed cough most of it up, but I would still suggest being checked out by the paramedics.”

“Oh, well that’s embarrassing.” James gave what he thought was a flirtatious smile. “I mean I only did this to impress you.”

Lily’s head snapped back to him with a deadly focus. “Come again?”

“Well yeah, y’know like in the movies. The guy pretends to drown so the pretty lifeguard gives him mouth to mouth. Didn’t mean to actually drown on you though. I actually had it all planned out. called it ‘The Squintz’.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Lily doubled over with her whole body shaking. Her eyes were wild and maniacal. James knew she was laughing at him, but he couldn’t tell if that look in her eyes was amusement or the desire to murder him.

“Do you mind if I ask what the joke is?”

Lily struggled to speak between peals of laughter.

“Oh it’s nothing. Nothing at all really. I mean it’s not like I don’t have enough to deal with. What with the privileged fucks who own into this club and their little brats who have nothing better to do than harass me because obviously a swimsuit is an invitation for ogling and creepy pick lines.  
“And after that, after all of that, I get the one idiot who is stupid enough to think that drowning would endear himself to me. When one internet search would reveal that we phased out actual mouth to mouth years ago.”

James wasn’t sure if he should feel embarrassed or offended.

“You should give me some credit though,” he said, “I did almost die.”

Lily considered this. “I suppose I could give you a B- for effort, but honestly it’s people like you who think they can pull stunts like this that really just make me wish I could have let you drown.”

James’ eyes widened at the thought. “You’d really let me drown?”

The corners of Lily’s mouth turned up. “Well, maybe not you.”

James’ heart did a somersault. His hand instinctively went to his hair—his fingers carding through his quickly drying curls—and grinned.

“Beauty this pure ought to be preserved, eh?”

Lily snorted. “Hardly, but I doubt your family would be too pleased if you died on my watch. Truth be told I’m not a big fan of being sued.

James put a hand to his heart. “Oh you wound me.”

Lily’s eyes narrowed. “I’m sure you’ll live.”

“I don’t know about that. I mean I did just almost drown. Now with the hurtful word you speak at me, I may very well be at Death’s doorstep. Every word stabs my already fragile heart.”

Lily smiled, despite herself. She didn’t want to be amused by this young man no matter how witty and handsome he was. His butchered Shakespeare and his smile in no way outweighed the fact that he had tried something that all lifeguards either fear or hate.

She was still kneeling there staring at him when she felt Benjy press a clipboard into her hands. Right…the report.

“So I need to ask you some questions. Do you want to try sitting up?”

James’ brow creased. Had she been staring at him just then? He shook his head and ruffled his hair—now almost completely dry, and let Lily help him into a sitting position. His head spun for a moment, then when he was sure he wasn’t going to vomit, he shrugged off her hands.

“I’m good now. Ask away I guess.”

Lily tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, now unable to look him in the eye.

“Okay. What’s your name?”

James choked out a laugh. “How have we gotten this far in a conversation without you asking my name?”

Lily rolled her eyes, “I think I was a little more concerned with making sure you weren’t going to dry drown on me.”

The corners of James’ mouth quirked up into a smile. “It’s James.”

“What?”

“My name,” he repeated, “is James.”

“No I know that, I need your last name too.”

James’ eyebrows shot up into his fringe. “Why? You wouldn’t be planning to stalk me on the internet, would you? Can’t say I’d blame you, though. Mum says I’m lovely.”

Lily groaned and narrowed her eyes at him. “It’s for the report, you egg.”

“Hey now! There is no need for name calling. I’m in a delicate state you know. And by the way, my last name is Potter. James Potter— full name.”

Lily felt all the colour drain from her face. “Potter, as in son of Fleamont and Euphemia Potter?”

“Dear old Mum and Dad, yeah.”

_Great_ Lily thought as she scribbled furiously across the clipboard. _How was your day, Lily? Oh fine you know, just nearly let the son of the woman who signs my paychecks drown in the pool. Smooth move, Evans._

She could feel her cheeks getting redder and redder; colour which had nothing to do with the sun beating down on her back. Her mouth was dry, and she had thrown her sunglasses off before jumping in the pool. She squinted at where they were laying at the foot of her stand. God, why did it have to be so bright? She looked over at James, who for someone who had recently come close to death looked surprisingly calm. His mouth still sporting that same cocky smile.

“I’m beginning to think I’m making you nervous.”

“Don’t flatter yourself Potter, I’m a bit more concerned with how your parents are going to react to this.” She shook her head and returned her focus to the chart. “Home phone number?”

One of James’ eyebrows went up to match his smile. “You’re not making me believe that you’re not planning to stalk me.”

Lily could feel her eyes rolling as she showed him the clipboard. “Just the report. Sorry to burst your bubble.”

“Damn,” said James. “This really isn’t going the way I planned at all.” He ran a hand through his hair in the vain hope to push some of his fringe out of his eyes. “I thought this would at least end with a date.”

“Yeah, and all you’re getting is a nice trip to hospital.” She gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. “Sorry mate.”

James groaned and gave Lily his best puppy dog eyes. “Nothing I can do to make you change your mind?”

Lily laughed, placed her hand under James’ chin, and guided his head about forty-five degrees to the left. “Over here, genius.”

James sighed and closed his eyes. “Should have known that would happen. I am blind as a bat without my glasses.”

“Well, I guess that at least clears up the question about whether you’ve been staring at my chest for the last 15 minutes.”

“Believe me darling, if I could see them, I’d be staring.”

“I don’t know if I should be flattered or creeped out.” She looked around to see if Marlene had returned with James’ friends. “Did you have your glasses on when you got in the pool, or are the laying around somewhere?”

James screwed up his eyes and sucked his teeth. “How much do you already hate me, Evans?”

“They’re at the bottom the pool aren’t they?”

James said nothing, but nodded in response.

Lily shook her head and groaned. “You Sir, are the bane of my existence.”

“Oh come on, you just met me!”

Lily opened her mouth to respond, but before she could confirm or deny whether James was really the bane of her existence, the paramedics arrived and took over. She watched as they took James through a series of exams and asked him questions. When they asked him if he remembered what happened Lily saw his entire face and neck grow red and smiled to herself. Cute or not, he should feel embarrassed for what he did.

Marlene came back with James’ friends who rushed the paramedics when they saw that he was awake. They were once again hurried away, this time by the paramedics, with assurances that they would be filled in when it was possible.

“Jamey, mate your mum is furious!” Sirius shouted over the shoulder of a paramedic. He sounded out of breath. “I called her and I think the words ‘grounded till you die’ were used. And not just you, mate. She grounded all of us. Even Remus, who we all know is her favourite. I didn’t even know she could do that, but she did.”

“Sirius,” James replied though his voice was still barely above a whisper, “ I do not understand how you let my mother bully you.”

Sirius drew his lips into a hard line. “James Fleamont Potter, do not ever let me hear you say another harsh word about your mother. She may be a hardass, but compared to mine, she is a goddamned saint”

“I’m pretty sure that’s an oxymoron,” piped in Peter. “I don’t think a saint could ever be ‘god damned.”

“Nobody asked you Pete! Anyway she said she was going to meet us at the hospital—”

But what Sirius was going to say after that James never found out, because at that moment Lily reappeared. She was dripping wet and in her hand she held James’ glasses.

“Thought you’d want these.” She smiled and placed the glasses in James’ hand.

James grinned and put the water streaked glasses on his face. His breath caught in his throat and he silently thanked ever deity for the oxygen mask. Even sopping wet Lily was a vision.

“Thank you.” He said with a gulp.

“See you around James Potter.” She curled her fingers in a minuscule wave as paramedics loaded him into the ambulance.

The drive to the hospital was silent except for the steady beep of the heart monitor and the slow hiss of the oxygen. James has managed to get one of the paramedics to retrieve his phone. On it, he noticed was a text from Sirius.

_Sirius: sorry your plan didn’t work, mate._

James grinned at the text, knowing that he had all summer left to get Lily to go on a date with him. After all, Squintz and Wendy got married in the end. He quickly typed back.

_Who said it didn’t work?_


End file.
